Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

What is the greatest event, an event that grounds possibility of all events and therefore is celebrated by everyone? In fact all celebrations of beautiful and good things or events are forms of this celebration. It is the advent of being out of Nothing that saints and sages call Meelad. Meelad is to exist, to live, to flourish, to beautify, to celebrate, to create. Nothing unifies Muslims better than their love for Muhammad (S.A.W). All the theological schools seek to prove their credentials in terms of this criterion. But how sad to note that today Muslims are divided on the question of Meelad. I don’t want to adjudicate either way in juristic terms as that is not my mandate as a student of philosophy and religion and I am not a jurist. But I want to invite attention on few points that, I think, are enough to show pointlessness of heated debate over the issue. I argue that all Muslims love Muhammad(SAW), that there can be no point scoring on the issue, that Meelad is not a monopoly ...

It is gratifying to watch developments in Delhi as AAP is rewriting the script of politics. AAP has been a success in many ways and one can’t predict how far and when it will indeed sweep the dirt that contemporary politics is identified with in common perception. I can only pray for better alternatives to contemporary politics to flourish. Alternatives are always welcome when the dominant mode is corrupt and has been tested so many times. There are issues with the question of getting genuine aam aadmi politics going. It involves, ideally speaking, among other things, doing away with the question of class and much of dominant discourse about nationalism, democracy etc. At least let us begin a serious debate on why electoral politics as practised today and declared legal of Election Commission warrants questioning. Let us call spade a spade and have the courage to ask for radical reforms in the conception of democracy, seeking votes, imposition of 2/3 rd  as definition...

Ideally most of the classics in philosophy must be read by a general reader. And in the 20th century, the two most important philosophers must be part of the general curriculum for anyone who wants to be introduced to the best of its thought. These are the Heidegger and Wittgenstein. Begin by watching films or documentaries on them or some accessible lectures by recognized authorities. Today a few preliminary points about life and work of Wittgenstein as an appetizer for taking heavier doses later. I would recommend at least his slim work Culture and Value that criticizes modern Western civilization as without culture on religious-mystical grounds as his more philosophical writings are hard nuts to crack been for professionals in philosophy. Described by Terry Eagleton as the philosopher of poets and composers, playwrights and novelists, Wittgenstein has been “something of a cult figure but shunned publicity and even built an isolated hut in Norway to live in complete seclusion....

Title: The Captured Gazelle:   The Poems of Ghani Kashmiri  Trans: Mufti Mudasir and Nusrat Bazaz.  Introduction: Mufti Mudasir  Penguin Classics, June 2013. _________________________________ Every moment it seeks to slip from the mind’s nook. Fresh poetic meaning is a gazelle to be captured.                                             (Ghani Kashmiri) Kashmir has recently been honoured by the advent of brilliant fiction writers and now we have brilliant scholars writing for international audience. It is great news to learn that as renowned a publishing house as Penguin has published an English translation of Kashmir's foremost Persian poet and one of its cultural icons Ghani Kashmiri in its highly acclaimed list, Penguin Classics. For the first time Ghani has been translated into English by the Kashmiris making his poetry a...

Agha Shahid Ali is one of the greatest and most famous names internationally in recent history of Kashmir.. Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems presents his poetry in one volume. Most Kashmiris, even those who have been students of English literature, find it very difficult to understand. Except a few poems and occasionally a few verses here and there Agha Shahid sounds Greek to people here. The difficulty of comprehending him extends to his sensibility. He belongs to a different epistemic and cognitive universe but he does share our pain and has been our ambassador in a way. It is through him that the pain of Kashmiris became better known to the world.  However it is sad to note that he is not so well known here. Very few Kashmiris have read him and fewer have understood him. Even his illustrious father acknowledges that he doesn’t understand his poetry. He was indeed a difficult poet, not unlike most modernist poets. There are reasons for this. I wish to talk today regarding the...

In our society there is some ambivalence whether we should congratulate or mourn someone’s retirement. I know a certain retiree who strongly resented his being congratulated.  I know another one who requested not to come to his home in group form after his retirement lest neighbours come to know of his retirement. Generally speaking here people don’t want retirement or at least want to postpone it. And it is a sign that they have failed to understand their coming to hither and their leaving from a particular stage. We should be strong enough by 58 to require any consolation. We should have understood that separation and tragedy constitute the soul of life, that suffering is the fate of every individual/desiring ego. According to our religious tradition all events are messages from God. And God be praised for them. As such there can never be occasion to mourn in real sense for any event that we can’t control.  I congratulate all retirees without an iota of ambivalence. Bu...

Today we discuss one of the most gifted teachers and distinguished scholars that Kashmir University has the honour of  nurturing – Prof. G. R. Malik. There are two kinds of students of English in Kashmir University – those who have heard Prof. Malik lecturing on English Romantics or Shakespeare and those who are not so fortunate. A scholar of classics of at least four languages, arguably the most accomplished scholar of Iqbal studies in Kashmir, the most illustrious teacher of English literature in last three decades, a treat to listen in religious gatherings and refresher programmes or teacher training sessions or as speaker in seminars, the most formidable voice in  what some  literary critics have called Tameeri Adab movement in Kashmir, Prof. G. R.  Malik is the best known Kashmiri literary critic of English literature. He is also  one of the most articulate Kashmiri ideologues of Islamic literary and cultural tradition. It is unfortunate that no compr...